Here are some crucial tips no one thinks of telling you- hold on to them and use them next time you are building or renovating:
- Has your contractor requested that you have all the plumbing equipment delivered already? Leave the faucets by you! Faucets are the items that are most often stolen or lost during renovations – and they are very often the most expensive ones too! Just bring your builder the pieces he needs to install inside the walls during construction (for example, the concealed mixer valve i.e. "interputz") and hold on to the external pieces until the end. Tell your builder that you want to install the faucets only after the house can be locked.
- Prior to tiling, which entails covering the floors with sand, take a video of all the pipes that were laid under the flooring, i.e. plumbing pipes, electrical tubing, central vacuum cleaner lines, etc. You'd be surprised how many times such "bestseller movies" have saved clients of mine from needlessly breaking down walls or ripping up tiles after construction was completed.
- Are you just about to send a plan with changes to your contractor or building professional? Make sure you wrote the date on it. Ask them to sign on it "Received on (day, month)". This can save you lots of money later on if the contractor claims that you did not hand in the changes on time. (There's a big difference in the price a contractor can charge you for making changes depending on if your request arrived before or after construction began.And some changes cannot be made at all if you submit changes too late.)
- Just before all the walls get plastered over, go through your house with the electrical plans in hand and check that every socket you requested was prepared according to plan. Sometimes the plasterers "bury" electrical outlets with plaster. If you don’t know that they are there, you won't know to look for them later.
- Pay your building professionals and all others working on your project, on time and with a smile on your face. You'll be happy to see that this nice gesture brings you great benefits in the end.
We have more secret tips on the way. Next up are our secret tips for plumbing and electricity.
Derorit
Creating spaces that people want to live in
